Earlier this week, Tracy McGrady was doing his defiant Allen Iverson imitation — he needed to get touches, he needed to start wherever he was going to play next year. Question if he was a sixth man now and swear words flew out of his mouth

Then last night in Orlando, he sounded like the kind of understanding veteran that contending teams seek to be a role player, in a conversation with the Orlando Sentinel.

“Depends on what team I’m on. What team, what role i’m trying to play. Maybe I’ll go to a team where I don’t have to be. I don’t want to have to do so much. I just want to come in and be able to contribute to what I have. I don’t want to be the man that gets the ball, shoots the ball 20 something times. I don’t want that anymore.”

Would I want to (be a role player)? Whatever it takes to win. I understand I haven’t played in a while. If I go to a team that already has that chemistry, that start position, if that’s what it is. Hopefully that’s not the case. I feel I haven’t fell off that much. Whatever it takes to win. That’s what I’m all about now. Winning. I don’t care about anything else.”

It’s not a Jekyll and Hyde thing, it’s an adjustment.

Tracy McGrady is going through a hard transition for a top athlete — the recognition that he is not THE star anymore. That his body has betrayed him to the point hat he is a supporting cast member. The list of athletes who have failed to make this adjustment, is long and storied. Kareem Abdul Jabbar struggled with it. Shaq has gone through it. Iverson could not accept it.

McGrady mentally feels like the guy who can take over games. Who can dominate and get his team a win almost single-handedly. But physically, those days have passed him by, even if he is still healing and getting stonger. Acceptance of that comes in fits and starts. But maybe he is coming around. The real question is, are general managers of contending teams.